June 4 (NBD) -- Strolling through the Bonn Marketplace, you can see the central monument stretching up to the sky and magnificent Rococo-style architectures encircling this historic market square. The Bonn Marketplace witnesses the changes of Bonn, one of the oldest cities in Germany.

An event themed "Panda Chengdu" kicked off at the Bonn Marketplace on June 1 as a part of activities in honor of the tenth anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Chengdu and Bonn, displaying Chengdu's culture to people in Bonn. One day later, a great concert was also staged, where musicians from China and Germany delivered wonderful performances celebrating the two cities' friendship.

Photo/Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone

"Chengdu-Bonn sister-city relationship is at the forefront of Sino-Germany cooperation," Feng Haiyang, the consul general of the People's Republic of China in Dusseldorf, Germany, remarked at the concert.

Next month, a grand event dubbed Beethoven Culture Week will stage dulcet performances in Chengdu to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven, one of the world's most famous musicians who was born in Bonn. This will give people in the southwestern Chinese city a chance to learn more about Bonn.  

Cultural exchanges to be focus of cooperation in next 10 years 

Bonn lies at the middle reaches of the Rhine while the Jinjiang river flows through Chengdu. Besides this, both Chengdu and Bonn are steeped in history. Tracing back to over 2,400 years ago, the first Shu emperor built its capital in Chengdu. Founded in the 1st century BC as a Roman settlement, Bonn is one of Germany's oldest cities.

The two cities with similar geographical feature and profound history initiated their sister-city relationship on September 10, 2009.

A part of the tenth anniversary celebrations, the "Panda Chengdu"-themed event was held in Bonn. Ancient Chinese dramatic art face-changing, sugar painting art, voice postcards in Chengdu dialect as well as famous Chengdu delicacies drew huge crowds at the event, which was organized by the Chengdu Municipal Foreign Affairs Office and operated by Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone.

"The food, the dialect, the show, everything at the event remind me of my hometown Chengdu," Li Yonghong told National Business Daily (NBD) at the activity. Li, a native of Chengdu, came to University of Bonn as an exchange student 20 years ago, and then started her nearly two decades of living abroad. "I run my Airbnb business now and after Chengdu and Bonn became sister cities, there witnessed an increasing number of Chengdu tourists coming to Bonn," shared Li.

Video/"Looking West to Chengdu" program under Chengdu TV Station 

Now the sister-city relationship between Chengdu and Bonn is stepping into the tenth year and cultural exchanges between the two vibrant cities are expected to be a highlight of their future cooperation.

"To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, we will have lots of events here (in Bonn), and many international guests including composers, orchestras and also conductors are expected to come to Bonn in the whole year. In Chengdu, there will be the Beethoven Culture Week in the coming month, which can be seen as the first big step for Bonn and Chengdu to cooperate in culture," said Mayor of Bonn Ashok Sridharan during an interview with NBD.

Co-organized by the Chengdu Municipal People's Government and city of Bonn, the Beethoven Culture Week aims to start a new chapter of bilateral ties between Chengdu and Bonn in the field of culture. In addition to providing an auditory feast for Beethoven lovers, a preliminary selection for the International Beethoven Piano Competition will also be held during the upcoming culture week. The participant taking the crown in the youth group will be entered into the final competition in Bonn at the end of 2019.

The non-governmental exchanges between people, companies and institutions of the two places is also critical to elevate the friendly cooperative relations. 

A Sydney-born artist Wendy Hack opened the Update gallery in Bonn which engages in Chinese modern art promotion in Germany and she revealed to NBD that several Chengdu artists would come to Bonn next month to present their solo exhibitions. 

"I have been to Chengdu many times and was impressed by the hospitality of Chengdu people and creativity of artists there," shared Hack. She also told NBD that her gallery has already established a strong relation with Blue Roof Museum of Chengdu to boost mutual cultural understanding between Chinese and German modern artists and collectors.

Photo/Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone

Sustainable development prioritized in past 10 years

Behind the 10-year sister-city relationship is unfolded a story of the Chengdu-Bonn cooperation striking healthy balance between green initiatives and an economic boom. 

Bonn was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990. It is home to 20 United Nations agencies and 150 NGOs today, and has developed a unique profile as a competence center for international cooperation and sustainable development.

"We have concentrated sustainable tourism for the last decade. I think it is important because in both Chengdu and Bonn, we do have many tourists. We should emphasize sustainable tourism and we should also emphasize sustainable living in our cities. Less pollution and less motor-driven vehicles," Mayor Sridharan said to NBD.

The City of Bonn launched the "Sustainable Bonn" initiative in 2006, successfully supporting Bonn's conference & hotel sector in developing unique sustainability strategies. The initiative was then promoted as a cooperation project under the rubric of Low-Carbon Partnership Bonn-Chengdu.

"To transfer the Sustainable Bonn concept to Chengdu, the planned project aims at fostering conservation and the efficient management of valuable resources in Chengdu. Hotels and restaurants within the Sansheng community (of Chengdu) will be encouraged to manage their businesses in a sustainable manner," Sabine Wihelm with Department of International Affairs and Global Sustainability, City of Bonn said to NBD.

Wilhelm also unveiled more details, "The participating managers of local hotels and restaurants will be provided with technical information on energy, such as energy efficiency of heating and cooling systems, energy supply, the use of solar energy, or information on the envelope of their building. Moreover, the partners may obtain tips and hints on waste prevention, disposal and recovery as well as on local procurement."

Chengdu is currently accelerating its development of a low-carbon urban industrial system. According to media outlet Chengdu Daily, clean energy accounted for 58.78 percent of the city's energy consumption in 2017, giving the city an edge in China in terms of sustainable development.

The green economy is expected to be an important pillar of the modern economy of Chengdu, and the city expects to increase the revenue from the main businesses of the green, low-carbon manufacturing industry to more than 300 billion yuan (43.6 billion U.S. dollars) by 2022, according to Chengdu's implementation plan for promoting the development of green economy. 

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn